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“The motivation
here is really to do something that has some aesthetic value. I’m not particularly
concerned about having a house. I don’t build this to own a home. I build it because
I like doing sculpture.” - Robert Bruno, 2007.
One
of the true tests for qualifying an artist’s effort is to judge whether the work
produced is of the sort that simultaneously astounds, inspires, surprises and
delights. Those few artists whose works do affect us in these ways are certainly
in possession of a level of ability that the rest of us can only marvel at and
envy. Some would call this talent genius. Others might witness the hand of the
Lord in the creation of these individuals because their work illustrates a level
of creativity that surely could spring from no other earthly source. And Texas,
thankfully, is the proud possessor of several of just this type of artist. One
of whom, the sculptor and architect Robert Bruno, has bequeathed to us
his Steel House, sometimes referred to as “The Metal Mansion”, just outside
of Lubbock in
Ransom Canyon. |
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Robert
Bruno in 1974
Photo courtesy www.robertbruno.com |
| Bruno, born in Los
Angeles in 1945 and making his way to Texas Tech University after some time in
Mexico began design work on the Steel House in 1973. The actual construction was
begun a year later and it was then that I first heard of the project. In fact,
the whole Lubbock
community heard of it then. The frame (if we can rightly call it that) was begun
as three giant, arachnid-like legs. You might well imagine the anxiety this caused
a very puritan society that was already feeling the sting of both the Vietnam
chaos and the loss of Nixon- an icon of the prevailing, local sentiments. Portrayed
in the local press as “weird”, “out of place” or just “ugly”, Bruno’s house became
quickly a fixture as extraordinary as a freak show at the circus. However most
residents, even an eleven-year-old with a tacit taste for the bizarre, missed
the point at first. As Bruno explained, he was only expanding on one of his existing
concepts. “The evolution of this house is that I’d actually been working on other
sculptures prior to this and one which was quite large was large enough to stand
under. And it seemed like a pleasant environment and if I could capture that same
feel on a little bit larger scale then I could live in it.” |
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Steel
House Framework
Photo courtesy www.robertbruno.com |
| The exterior of the
sculpture (a term used to describe the house by Bruno as well as several other
artists and critics) has been typified as a “metal pig” or, more usually, as a
“spaceship”. While the structure does appear as though it may have landed on its
location the natural materials, comprised wholly of º” metal sheeting, used in
construction suggest that it just as easily could have grown from the soil underneath.
(If green is “Green” then surely brown can be “Green" too?) By contrast nowadays,
the sculpture does appear somewhat misplaced. But when considering that in 1974
that stretch of space in Ransom
Canyon was largely undeveloped, the structure would have seemed much more
attuned to its surrounding environment. Nevertheless, even today the exterior
exhibits a fluidity of design that allows a spectator to view large portions of
the area from a single vantage point. Almost every angle is smoothed and while
the constancy of color denies a single focal point these same components compel
the eye to sweep from one end or side to the next, to keep moving until the entirety
of the faÁade is a whole mental image. This is, evidently, what Bruno envisioned
back in the initial stages, “One of the things that makes this a somewhat different
structure than most is that it doesn’t have a skeleton with the skin draped over
it. This skin is the structure. So, the outside of this house is what holds it
all up.” |
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Steel
House Interior
Photo courtesy www.robertbruno.com |
| The interior of Steel
House is majestic. Indeed, I have frequently had the impression that Bruno’s
vision began inside out, as it were. Originally planned as a single story home
the project grew as time passed and inspiration matured into action. Today the
sculpture is a three-story magnus opus with some of the “legs” standing
in for the first floor, e.g. one of the legs houses the home’s library, another
the home’s elevator and a third slated as a wine cellar. The space atop the supports
(even Bruno himself was unsure about the total interior square footage; he thought
it somewhere between 2000-2700 square feet) is separated by a spiral staircase
and Gothic columns that, again, are smoothed and rounded to lessen the severity
of both the material and texture. A portion of the window’s glass is colored in
order to accentuate and augment the natural elements within. At times futuristic
(think ‘Logan’s Run’) and at others medieval (Notre Dame), the interior of the
sculpture brings to mind the expanse and geometry of Duchamp’s Nude Descending
a Staircase, No. 2. Coupling disparate styles however, was the juxtaposition
that Bruno was concerned with from the beginning, “I’m interested in giving it
a somewhat organic quality-somewhere between animal and machine.” And so the materials
used to create the structure’s interior range from metal to wood to glass to plaster,
much of it scrap from other building projects around the west Texas area. These
materials were intentionally left raw and even somewhat primitive. When fused
and welded together though they combine to create an aesthetic that forces the
viewer to re-establish perceptions of space and prejudice. In fact, the house
is meant, with its mostly natural materials and slightly Spartan exterior, to
emulate and mirror the rustic environment that it initially inhabited. |
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Metal,
wood, glass and plaster
Photo courtesy www.robertbruno.com |
Working in much the
same manner as Jackson Pollock, Bruno’s Steel House was, it seems, forever changing
and growing; never completed but always near some terminus. The construction,
the actual work, was the main component of the endeavor. Again, planned as a one-floor
house, the work was constantly being updated and modified until it reached its
current three-story status. Bruno, by interviews in various newspapers and magazines,
was frequently quoted as saying that the house would be ready for occupancy “in
about a year”. Like Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, the famous Spanish cathedral
that, after 128 years, is still under construction, the Steel House was still
witnessing additions and modifications in 2008 when Bruno passed away after 35
years of overseeing construction of this mammoth sculpture. It seems though that
he might have had this trajectory in the back of his mind the entire time. As
he stated, “In this build as you go, one of the things that happens also is that
you find yourself coming back and cutting out something that you did 6-7 years
before and it looked right at the time but in the context of something new that
you’re doing, a modification would look even better.”
Perhaps this confluence
of philosophies, the architect and the sculpture, is what keeps Steel House moving
forward, keeps it alive. As an artist Bruno seemed content, appeared satisfied
more with the building of the house than its actual completion. In a 2008 interview
in the Financial Times Bruno explained his thoughts on the process of architectural
design and in the process illuminated an underlying artistic principle, “You could
say that architectural models are the real buildings, and that most of what is
built today is just a dishonest replica of that. In my house, the structure is
the shell; there’s no pretense, no deception.” And then again, in another interview,
when Bruno was trying to describe the function of the separate rooms, the space
was still undetermined, “This room could be a bedroom but I haven’t really decided
what it’s going to be.” |
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Spiral
Staircase
Photo courtesy www.robertbruno.com |
| Robert Bruno
could not have chosen a more exacting location for his Steel House. An artist
full of the philosophies of opposites and juxtapositions he planted his sculpture
in exactly that part of the state where it would attract the most attention. Akin
to those Cadillacs near
Amarillo with their trunks sinking into the ground, Bruno’s house is sure
to always grab notice. And while it is very disquieting to think that he has passed
on I believe he would be very glad to consider that everyone who sees his work
for the first time will immediately find need to readjust reality. It will be
in this manner that the sculpture continues to expand and grow.
Special thanks to Ben Britt for video diary of Steel House.
Website:
www.robertbruno.com
© Byron Browne
Notes
From Over Here May
5, 2010 Column
Byron Browne can be reached at Byron.Browne@gmail.com |
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